Technical Field
The embodiments herein are generally related to the field of outdoor space heaters. The embodiments herein are particularly related to portable heating apparatus. The embodiments herein are more particularly related to outdoor patio heaters for providing heat in all directions or in a specific area desired by the user.
Description of the Related Art
Traditionally outdoor patio heaters are commonly used for places such as restaurants and outdoor recreational facilities to provide warmth in preselected outdoor areas thereby making it much more comfortable for those who like to be outdoors. The use of patio heaters helps to extend the working hours of the day in cold seasons during which it becomes difficult to enjoy outdoor activities comfortably due to chilled weather conditions. Patio heaters typically comprise a base chamber that is sized to contain a fuel tank therein and a post connected to the base chamber projecting upward there from to a burner assembly housing in which air is heated by combustion of the fuel gases from the tank in the base chamber.
These typical patio heaters provide heat in all directions and thus a lot of heat is wasted from the top surface which reduces the efficiency of the heater. In addition, the currently available patio heaters are all manually operated thereby requiring the party managers or owners of the restaurants to continuously monitor the starting or shutting down operations of the device depending on the presence of customers in that particular area of the restaurant.
Moreover, the patio heaters are used for outdoor areas or party locations where there is a frequent need to deploy additional electronic devices such as LED light, music systems, food ordering kiosks and the like. Thus, a management of these many devices along with the monitoring of their power supply creates an additional burden for the party managers. Arranging power supply for different electronic devices leads to laying of long wires from one area to another of the outdoor facility which in turn many a times results in user being tripped over these wires.
Hence, there is a need for a heating apparatus such as a patio heater to maximize the heating efficiency by providing heating in a desired direction. Yet there is a need for a patio heater which makes use of the heat wasted from the top portion by converting the waste heat into useful electrical energy for driving several other electronic devices. Further, there is a need for a patio heater which provides heating based on a detection of a presence of user around the device thereby saving a remarkable amount of fuel consumption and manual effort. Still further, there is a need for a smart outdoor patio heater which houses several other electronic devices such as music system, food ordering kiosk, lighting system, etc., operated along with the patio heater.
The above mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed herein and which will be understood by reading and studying the following specification.